A secret agent has been sent to eliminate a national threat to security named Peachinski, who is currently overseeing training operations at an old Soviet training camp mocked up to look like an American town. Peachinski has many loyal, even fanatic, followers and so will be well guarded during his brief stay. The area is remote, however, and there is much difficulty in getting large numbers of troops to the site, so this time frame nevertheless leaves Peachinski at his most vulnerable. The window for mission execution is extremely limited.

The map is a 4’ x 3’ snowy town with assorted mock-up buildings, complete and in ruins but most hopelessly out of scale due to a shortage of resources, lining both sides of a snowed over road. Both ends of the road have been barricaded off and two abandoned vehicles, loaded with weapons and explosives, sit along its length. To the west, from south to north, are a house with a small ice pond and gazebo out front, a church sat atop a hill, a collection of two ruined warehouses with a snowy pine between them, and a smaller church. To the east, from south to north, are a house, a hardware store with fuel drums to the southern side, the ruined layout of a building with a snowy pine out front, a candy store with a mailbox out front and a large well out back, and a large manor set atop a broad hill with a snowy pine and doghouse out front and something very special out back. Peachinski’s helicopter sits at the extreme north of the map.

• Limited Ammo: Solitaire’s pistol only has 6 shots, the loyalists weapons will permanently jam on a critfail.• Stealth and Detection: We opted not to use the normal “Hidden” rules for this battle. We like them, but for the sake of the battle report, since the stealth character was the only unit on that team, we thought it would be better if viewers could tell where Solitaire was at all times. To that end, we devised detection rules: loyalists could see twice their unmodified propulsion rating through the driving snow, allowing reactions as normal, but could roll their skill to expand this range, all limited to actual Line of Sight. Unit behavior was dictated by common sense and player goodwill. Guards, for example, are given “patrol” actions when they move, even if directly toward the player known location of the spy but can’t sprint without a reason for doing so. This allows for the unit to “hear something” or have an uneasy feeling and check it out cautiously. Detection rules were used by loyalists to keep track of other loyalists as well, allowing them to notice a call of alarm or a dead body.• Super SuperNatural: While there is nothing in the rules against the kind of ridiculousness we’ve built here (Solitaire has 16 SuperNatural Dice that comprise 82 of her 100 CP), at least as far as I could determine, I wouldn’t call it common convention. But then, what the hell do I know? The one “restriction” I did see had to do with the types of creatures by theme that had access to higher die types. Perhaps that is the limiting factor. In any case, we didn’t want to use Heroic Ego for the spy due to the simplistic nature of the objective. Nor did we want to use it for the villain, due to the limited forces of the spy’s player. We also decided that Solitaire would be able to permanently sacrifice (and subsequently permanently suffer the skill penalty) SN Dice, 1 (highest) for each 1 point of armor she failed an armor roll by. Essentially, we did this because she was a supernatural creature in a hero’s role, with no one to redshirt or thrall for her. We figured that she would have one bad roll and the game would abruptly end, so we gave her this buffer to serve instead.

(The previous was written with a broader audience in mind, so I apologize for telling you what you already know.)

Setup

Overview.

The deployment zone for Agent Solitaire is 5” from the southern table edge. She deploys dead center, behind the barricade.

The deployment zone for the loyalists is everywhere else. One guard deploys in the ruins to the east, one in the ruins to the west, and one next to the fence on the ice pond. The sniper deploys on the second floor of the ruined warehouse. A fodder deploys next to the well. Finally, Peachinski, his bodyguard, and a thrall deploy against the northern street barricade, on the inside.

The loyalists choose to hold four thralls and two fodder in reserve, choosing also the church on the hill and the manor house as Spawners.

Round One

Sol Turn 1: The spy draws on all of her training to keep her self protected (4d10 armor) and bolts (1d10 move) behind the house to the west, finishing in a slide right up to the back corner.

Loy Turn 1: Two fodder step outside of the church to the south.

The guard with the green gun (Green) moves out of the ruins on patrol south toward the tree while the fodder by the well continues to man his post watching the eastern lane behind the houses.

The guard with the parka on (Parka) moves across the ruins to the southern walls on patrol.

The guard on the ice pond (Fisherman) hears a sound from behind the house and moves to check it out. Sliding on the ice eats a couple of inches of his movement, though, and he doesn’t quite make it to within LOS of the spy.

She then flicks the dagger at one of the fodder, ever so lightly slicing his tendon and sending him tumbling down the hill (d6 move). Moving quickly, she dashes up the hill next to the church on the southern side.

Loy Turn 2: The unharmed fodder from the church heads down the hill after his friend to help him up. Solitaire is at least 2/3 blocked from his LOS so counts as completely Hidden. He doesn’t see her. Green sees the fodder fall but between the distance and being 1/3 LOS blocked, he doesn’t see the spy either.

Parka sees the fodder fall as well and moves over to find out what the hell is going on like Bonn-o-Tron.

Peachinski sees Parka move out but not to where. Everyone else is oblivious and they continue to man their posts or hold their positions.

Round Three

Sol Turn 3: Solitaire moves to the back of the church and hides, lying in wait.

Loy Turn 3: Parka demands to know what happened and unhurt fodder (Stutters) explains how his friend tripped and fell. The fallen fodder (Gray) is about to explain how that isn’t true, that something nicked him, as he stand up but he notices the Fisherman’s body by the house. Meanwhile, Green moves up to the jeep to find out what’s going on when he, too, notices the fisherman’s corpse.

Gray and Green finish their moves toward the body, calling toward the others to come with them. No one besides Stutters and Parka hears the cry though.

Loy Turn 4: (This picture is missing.) Gray moves all the way around fisherman but doesn’t notice Solitaire. Green moves in as well, making it to the fence, and also doesn’t notice her due to lack of LOS. Stutters runs over, moving past Green, and is cautious enough on the approach to notice the spy and call out a warning, which brings Parka up short and triggers Solitaire’s held actions.

Sol Turn 4 Cont: With precision, Solitaire shoots each of the three men by the house is quick succession (d10 d6, still -2, kills Gray / 2d6, -0, kills Stutters / 2d6 2d4, -1, kills Green). None of them react quickly enough.

Sprinting away from the killing floor, off the hill, and into open space, Solitaire fires a fourth shot into Parka, who also doesn’t react quickly enough (4d4, still -6, kills Parka). She falls hard to the ground. The falling damage doesn’t harm her but she is Disrupted. For all of that, no one else notices anything out of the ordinary. Solitaire has used up 5 of her 6 silenced shots.

bolts to the snowy pine on the eastern side of the street. Well fodder (Wellman) almost sees her move to the tree but can’t pierce the snowblind.

Loy Turn 5: Spawn two Thralls from the church to keep the area patrolled.

Spawn two Thralls from the manor to monitor the forward area (Peachinski leaves in five turns).

Round Six

Sol Turn 6: Solitaire moves quietly into the edge of the ruins and waits.

Loy Turn 6: Thralls from the manor house patrol to the edge of the hill.

Thralls from the church take a little slide down the hill. Whee!

Round Seven

Sol Turn 7: Solitaire refocuses (d12 move, d12 blessing, 3d10 armor) and tinkers a bit with the dynamite (2d10 exp radius). She flat out runs up to Wellman, spraying him with bullets on the way in and sending his corpse tumbling backward into the well.

She skids to a stop, drops the dynamite next to the building and reverses direction.

Loy Turn 7: The manor thralls hear the chatter of gunfire and rush down the hill through the driving snow. One trips, however, and slides down the hill on his face.

The church thralls get up off their behinds and huff it across the street.

Bodyguard reacts to the gunfire and ushers Peachinski around the barricade west, opposite the commotion. Thrall brings up the rear while the sniper scopes around for a target.

Round Eight

Sol Turn 8: The superspy pours on the speed and moves with purpose (d12 move, 4d10 armor, d12 blessing). She fairly flies through the ruins and across the snow to leap upon the hood of the jeep, opening fire on the two church thralls coming up beside it (d6 to roll, just overcoming penalties) and mows them both down, painting the road red.

The dynamite explodes in a huge area, shattering the building, the well, and the two manor thralls into pieces and engulfing them all in flames.

Bodyguards tighten up as Peachinski takes a lookout behind the cover of the barricade. Peachinski would’ve absolutely noticed Solitaire standing atop the jeep had the other car not been squarely in the way. No one else sees anything, either.

Round Nine

Sol Turn 9: Solitaire pulls a bold maneuver (4d10 armor, d12 blessing), hopping in the jeep and driving it directly at the other car down the street. She draws a bead on the sniper with her borrowed machine gun (d12 to roll) but critfails. With the gun permanently jammed and no other weapons within reach, she decides to take cover from the return fire in the place with all the weapons.

She tosses the gun and bails from the rapidly moving jeep, smacking hard into the rear of the other car. She’s pretty sure she hears bones crunching but she survives (this picture is missing).

Loy Turn 9: The Sniper and the thrall open fire on the car, setting its engine ablaze, while Peachinski and his bodyguard look on like Bonn-o-Tron.

Round Ten

Sol Turn 10: The jeep full on slams into the corner of the bigger car and flips, slamming down hard and skidding a few feet toward the barricade. Neither car was significantly damaged in the collision, however. Solitaire pops up in the confusion (4d10 armor, d12 blessing), grabs ahold of the turret mounted autocannon (d12 to roll) and utterly lays waste to both the bodyguard (obliterating his armor) and the thrall with a super crit.

She then snatches up a pistol from the trunk space and (3d6 to roll, still -3) pops the sniper’s head off like a dandelion with another crit.

Loy Turn 10: The car explodes in a scything rain of hot shrapnel. Solitaire fails her armor roll by 11! She loses her top 11 SN Dice to the hit. She groans, pulls a massive chunk of steel from her belly, and forces herself to her feet.

Peachinski turns when he sees her go down and casually makes his way toward the helicopter, thinking it done.

Round Eleven

Sol Turn 11: The damaged spy holds her insides together with one arm, stumbles forward and fires a couple of warning shots (-3d4 move) near Peachinski, hoping to intimidate him and thinking that she may not be able to kill him before he hops his ride. It works. Peachinski stops and raises his hands in a false gesture of supplication.

Loy Turn 11: (This picture is missing, which royally blows.) Peachinski gathers himself up and pulls a fast one (d10 blessing, d6 armor), dashing back to the barricade and firing a shot into Solitaire’s center mass. The shot connects, jerking her back, but she continues to advance relatively unscathed.

Round Twelve, Final Round

Sol Turn 12: Solitaire pulls herself together for one last surge of effort (2d4 armor), bolts forward, dives past the barricade, twisting sideways in midair and (3d4 to roll, still -9 to hit, but somehow still does) plants a solid slug in Peachinski’s face. Mission Accomplished.

• Solitaire completed all objectives.• Peachinski’s Loyalists failed all objectives. Although, Stutters does get special mention for detecting the spy right before he caught a bullet between the eyes.

Solitaire wins this battle.

Solitaire’s Performance

Honestly, this was a cakewalk. True, if it hadn’t been for our house rule concerning SN Dice as HP, she would’ve been toast there at the end…which would’ve also been fitting. Might’ve actually made the battle a little more interesting. Still, the attempt made by Solitaire’s player to do cool shit anyway deserves special mention. With her movement and those SN Dice, she could’ve crossed the field, straight down the middle, weathering all that gunfire, and shot Peachinski in the face in all of two turns. Wouldn’t have made for a very fun game, that. Other than that, if the stakes had been higher, Solitaire would have probably been better off keeping that last silenced shot and proceeding from enemy to enemy quietly. Not very BrikWarsian, I know, but more tactically sound. The vehicles were obvious lures and there were stronger ways to proceed toward the final objective.

Loyalist Performance

Strong, all things considered. We both made the mistake of thinking that the cannon fodder would matter. Making them thralls also seemed like a good idea at first. And it probably would’ve been if they hadn’t been forced out, away from the guy they were there to redshirt for. The idea was to trap Solitaire and provide combined fire…but that was never going to work with her stupid high armor values. So, failing that, they were a clustered detection system. The problem was, initial deployment was off and the fisherman’s lure (ha) obliterated the core of the army before it had a chance to cause damage. The movements were right but this was a doomed army from the beginning. There was some small flaw in the end: the thrall and bodyguard should’ve been behind the barrier and negating to the power of the autocannon. Their redshirting later (during the final duel) could’ve been what won the day for Peachinski. Oh, well, we all make mistakes…I guess in all the commotion…he just lost his head.

Other Thoughts

This was an odd sort of game, with one side having only one high cost unit. That almost never works out. The battle lacked any real sort of challenge so my advice is: don’t do this in your games. Keep the supernatural stuff spread around a bit and display some diversity in your selections. If you do need to go this route (for story reasons or whatever), the opponent of the Super should carefully consider his options. Swarming probably won’t work. Consider, instead, a few heavy hitting units. Nothing too major so you don’t eat your points, of course, but enough to combine attacks at the right tactical juncture and waste that fool. Also, don’t use SN Dice as HP. It sounds cool but it’s actually a really bad idea.

South view of the aftermath.

North view of the aftermath as the sun rises.

The Fisherman's Lure.I guess these guys will have all of eternity to....PONDer their mistake.

Midtown wreckage and spreading blood pools.

Solitaire really had an impact here.

The execution wall, spreading blood pools, and a trail of gore. You could say Solitaire really showed her guts.

Epilogue

Agent Solitaire looked up from the headless corpse of that soviet scumbag Peachinski to see his helicopter pilot making a run for it. She was holding her guts in with one bloody hand and she didn’t know if she was going to make it anyway. Ah, well, she thought, protocol…and shot the little fucker in the back.

She dragged herself over to the copter, her hand slipping on the door frame. Her vision was a little blurry and she wasn’t a hundred percent she could even see the controls, let alone fly the goddamn thing. Christ, she hurt. She reached up and touched the comm buried in her ear canal. A voice flickered over the channel, faint at first, then picking up in signal intensity. “…ent Solitaire? Report.” Voice like a steel cable, she thought, amused but didn’t know why. She didn’t immediately reply, only the sound of her labored breathing filled the comm channel. There was a short silence. Then, “…Agent Solitaire? …Isolde…?”Isolde spat out a globule of blood and replied, “It’s done, mum.”“Good, return home.”